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General Cricket => World Cricket => England => Topic started by: Slab on May 31, 2012, 10:44:16 AM
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BREAKING: Kevin Pietersen has retired from all international limited overs cricket with immediate effect!
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According to ECB Facebook page
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You beat me to this by about a minute so I'll use this topic instead. We need him more in T20's and ODI's than we do in the Test team, however I suspect he wants to stay in the test team to keep his central contract. Very poor timing tbh, now we need to find a new T20 batsmen to take his place at short notice.
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Think he is going down the Chris Gale route??? tests only for the central contract and then as much T20 as he can muster?
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It's on cricinfo.
Fair play to him, let the new blood come through - shame he couldnt be available for the ODI's against Australia this summer though.
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"Pietersen had wished to play in to the T20 World Cup - but his England contract states he must be available for both formats or neither."
Got that from the Lords twitter account, seems like a lack of common sense from the ECB. I doubt the ECB will sit still and do nothing, because the last thing you want before a 20/20 world cup is to see your best batsmen who scored a century in the IPL retire..
FvanN - Chris Gayle doesn't play tests does he? His last one was in 2010..
The ECB ideally should give Pietersen a new contract which states that he should ONLY play the limited overs games, because that's what he is suited to and ideally he should be moving out of the test team to create space for a new, younger batsmen.
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Gutted, he's always been such a presence in the side.
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This could be interesting, I just wonder now he's retiring from the shorter formats if we'll see more of him at Surrey in the Championship, lets face it if we don't he's not going to be playing much between the two summer series.
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well if anyone was made for limited overs cricket, it was KP.
strange decision, but more money in various IPL type tournaments these days.
international cricket will become weaker if this type of trend continues.
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Saw on Twitter cant remember from who though that he wanted to stay in the 2020 side but that the ECB said development of the two, 2020 and ODI sides were now linked. Does this mean that Cook will be in the 2020 side then?
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If he retires from Limited Overs cricket full stop then fair enough, but to retire from internationals but carry on getting big bucks to go play IPL whilst still expecting to play Tests makes no sense to me (other than for his wallet) - this seems a very, very selfish decision - I hope he gets dropped from all forms off the back of this.
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I think you could make a pretty good case for him being the best T20 batsman in the world. He averages almost twice what Gayle does in T20 internationals. Gutted he won't be playing, however much I dislike him.
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this seems a very odd decision.
Expect a u-turn.
he must have fallen out with someone at the ECB.
He has just scored a load of runs in ODI cricket and is one of the best 2020 batsmen going.
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according to the lords cricket ground twitter page he wanted to play in the t20 world cup but his contract says he had to play in both one day formats of neither.
I do think however he is a better test match player and this isnt all that bad, yes england have lost a huge player just before a world cup however it gives younger players a chance to prove themselves.
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this seems a very odd decision.
Expect a u-turn.
he must have fallen out with someone at the ECB.
He has just scored a load of runs in ODI cricket and is one of the best 2020 batsmen going.
Didn't he get a telling off last week for Twitter remarks about our friend Nick Knight?
Perhaps that's unsettled him somewhat. Great player to watch, the T20 World Cup will be worse as a result of this news.
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Just an attempt to play more T20 cricket as a mercenary is Aus, India and anywhere that will take him.
Surely if you retire from international limited overs cricket, then domestic limited overs too, but I don't see this happening
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I would tell him its all or nothing ( if selected!) arrogant and greedy decison. That he is a 'Plastic Brit' makes it so much worse
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Aggers said that it was a decision that allows him to spend more time with his family which shows how much the test match format means to him to continue to play it.
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Just an attempt to play more T20 cricket as a mercenary is Aus, India and anywhere that will take him.
Surely if you retire from international limited overs cricket, then domestic limited overs too, but I don't see this happening
Suppose this is no different to Paul Scholes or Alan Shearer retiring from international football to prolong their more lucrative club careers.
I rather think this decision is motivated by something other than greed though, Pietersen makes a fortune in endorsements which are largely fuelled by his appearances for England. Ergo he stands to lose out potentially quite a bit by making this decision.
He's a great player who has put his family first, and is willing to dedicate himself to the purest form of the game in test cricket. Fair play to him, though I hope it's quarrel induced and he changes his mind.
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I wouldn't say it is selfish, he wants to spend time with his family as a lot of people have already said and hopefully it will prolong his test match career which I think everyone would much rather see then him breaking down in 2/3 years time and not being able to play any cricket at all.
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If he wants to spend more time with family and pro-long his test career, then he'll only play test or first-class cricket.. but I bet that isn't the case
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It's all Nick Knights fault. Why did he have to go and upset him like that.
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What appears to have happened is that he said -
"I don't want to play ODI cricket any more - plus I wont be around for the 2015 world cup so it is sensible I stop"
"I want to play 2020 cricket as I am rated the best in the world at this"
to which the response was
"no, it is all or nothing"
so he said - "bye."
31 is too young for KP to be retiring. I am really disappointed.
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I wonder how the KP worshipper(the one who wanted to play and look like him) on here will react to this news? Another important question is who will replace KP? Luke Wright? Jason Roy perhaps? Plenty of big hitters around in the county game but not many of them have faced world class bowling and yet still launched the ball to the rope(Luke Wright was a good example of this)
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Just goes to show KP has the maturity of a spoilt kid
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Why couldn't he just request his board to not to select him for ODIs and ONLY select for Twenty20s so he plays September World Cup, surely board would have agreed considering how big player he is/was.
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George Dobell points out the ECB's rediculous hypocrasy...
Pietersen impasse demands ECB rethink
Kevin Pietersen wanted to play at the World Twenty20, England were 'disappointed' by his retirement - surely the two parties can find common ground?
http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/566835.html
Kevin Pietersen is not really the retiring type. So it was surely relevant that the announcement of his retirement from all international limited-overs cricket came from the ECB and not the player. It was Pietersen's intention to opt out only from the ODI format but, due to the terms of his ECB central contract, his decision to rule himself out of one limited-overs format automatically ruled him out of the other. He has not so much retired from T20Is, as been retired.
It is a hammer blow - a somewhat self-inflicted hammer blow - to England's chances of retaining the World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka in four months' time. Pietersen, at his brilliant, belligerent best, was awarded the player of the tournament award when England won in the Caribbean in 2010. While he has not always been consistent - he was dropped from the side only months after the World T20 triumph - there are no obvious replacements. Aged 31 and fit, there is no reason why Pietersen's best years should not have been ahead of him. His absence from Sri Lanka is a waste from which no-one benefits.
The ECB would argue that they cannot allow individuals to dictate terms to them. They will talk of the importance of planning, the symmetry between the different limited-overs sides and the worth of stability in the team. They do not want other players following suit and a situation developing where the limited-overs squads become increasingly separated from one another. It is true, too, that Andy Flower's record as England coach is exceptional: the team comes first and he will not allow anyone - no matter how talented - to jeopardise the unity of purpose that he has developed. He has rarely been proved wrong and time may prove him correct this time, too.
But the ECB stance is open to accusations of hypocrisy. Andrew Strauss, for example, was not obliged to 'retire' from the ODI side when it became clear that he had no future in T20I cricket. Indeed, in April 2009, when announcing details of Strauss' omission from the World T20 side, Geoff Miller, the national selector, stated: "Andrew and the selectors believe his game is better suited to Test and ODI cricket and it is for that reason he has not been selected in the preliminary 30-man squad for the forthcoming ICC World Twenty20. Andrew is focused on the Test and ODI formats of the game." If that can work for Strauss, why not Pietersen?
The likes of Michael Lumb have been selected only for T20I cricket, while Alastair Cook, the ODI captain, and Jonathan Trott are among those not currently in the T20I side. Why the ECB can take a flexible approach to them and not Pietersen remains unclear. Their intransigence is reminiscent of that of the WICB towards Chris Gayle and co. Nobody wins in such a situation. There must have been another way.
The difference, the ECB would state, is that Strauss, Lumb, Cook et al remained available for all formats. In truth, Strauss has not played another Twenty20 game since March 2009, even at domestic level, but continued in the ODI team for another two years. He may never have announced his T20I retirement, but sometimes actions speak louder than words.
The ECB is setting a dangerous precedent here. With the England schedule crazily crowded in the coming months, it may well be that more players - players who have to juggle the demands of their professional career with family lives - decide they would like to spend more time at home. By taking such a hard line with Pietersen, the ECB have given themselves precious little wriggle room in the future.
Rumours of Pietersen's retirement from ODI cricket have been persistent for some time. He is not rare among members of the England squad in preferring Test and T20 cricket to ODIs and, had the ECB accepted his decision, he would have been able to spend considerably more time with his family and, perhaps, prolong his career in other formats.
The timing is a surprise, though. Not only has Pietersen scored centuries of the highest class in his last two ODIs - both against Pakistan in the UAE - but he has also been at pains to underline his commitment to the format. He had just been promoted to open the batting in ODI cricket and, asked about his ODI future as recently as February 17, he replied: "I don't know why you need to keep asking the question. I'm here playing for England; I love playing for England. England gives me the opportunities to sign with Delhi. Why would I give anything up? I'm totally committed to England." In another interview he said: "The next World Cup in 2015 is very much a target for me."
What has changed? Weariness may be one factor. Perhaps the penalty imposed by the ECB only a few days ago, following Pietersen's negative comments on Twitter about Nick Knight's ability as a commentator, was also a minor catalyst; the straw of irritation that broke his resolve.
But the schedule is key to this. Pietersen is already allowed to participate in the IPL and will gain little financially from downgrading his lucrative ECB central contract in order to make fleeting appearances in T20 tournaments around the world. Instead, he is among several players daunted by the prospect of the unrelenting pressure of the England international schedule. The ECB is flogging England players into early retirement and this lack of flexibility will not help.
Some will blame Pietersen's involvement in the IPL. They will say that, had he rested during those weeks rather than representing Delhi Daredevils, he might be in a better frame of mind to approach the rigours ahead. Maybe, but it is unrealistic to expect players to turn their back on IPL riches these days. They are allowed to do so under the terms of their contracts. The IPL is a fact of modern cricket; it is not going to go away.
The relationship between Pietersen and some of the England team management has not always been as warm as it might be. At the time that Pietersen was pushing for the removal of Peter Moores as England coach, he also wanted Flower removed as batting coach. It took time for Flower and Pietersen to build bridges and, as Steve James reveals in his new book The Plan, the ECB employed conflict resolution consultants as part of the process. It had seemed that those scars had healed but it is sometimes hard to avoid the conclusion that there is one rule for Pietersen and another for other England players. Stuart Broad, for example, recently referred to unnamed members of the media as "liars" over Twitter and received no reprimand.
As to the future, most spectators will be limited to witnessing Pietersen only in Test action. While he will prove a wonderful draw if he plays more T20 cricket for Surrey, it is hard to see him appearing often in the county game; he has played seven Championship innings since becoming a Test player in 2005.
In the media release announcing the retirement, Pietersen said he would have "readily played" in the World T20, while Hugh Morris, managing director of England cricket, said he was "disappointed" by Pietersen's withdrawal. Somewhere, in between those two statements, there is surely a point of contact. The two sides need to sit down again - with those conflict resolution experts if necessary - and find a more satisfactory solution to this impasse. As things stand, England are denied arguably their finest player in all limited-overs cricket. There has to be another way.
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Thanks Buzz
Good read that.
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Whilst I'm sure KP wants to play more t20 and get mega bucks doing it, aren't most t20 tournaments run simultaneously to englan test series (either in part or in full)? So assuming he still gets picked for the test side he won't play much extra ipl etc
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Another good article this one in defence of KP from The Reverse Sweep http://thereversesweep.typepad.com/blog/2012/05/kevin-pietersens-retirement-from-limited-overs-cricket-the-case-for-the-defence.html
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Way too much ODI cricket, don't blame him! Will be missed in the T20I world cup in september